30 feared dead, scores of others injured in Ogun expressway accident

At least 30 persons were feared dead in a crash, which involved four vehicles on the Mabolufon Junction near Ijebu-Ode on the Lagos-Benin Expressway in Ogun State.

About 20 others were critically injured.

Most of the victims were roadside traders and commuters waiting to board vehicles on the expressway.

It was a gory spectacle.

There were wreckages of wares, horrifying mangled human bodies and blood stains everywhere.

At the time of filing this report around 7pm, the bodies of seven people, including that of an expectant mother, had been deposited at the morgue of the State Hospital in Ijebu–Ode.

Doctors were battling to save the lives of more than 20 people said to be critically injured, eyewitnesses said.

Officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), the police and the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE) were seen evacuating the dead and the injured to hospitals in Ijebu-Ode and the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital in Sagamu.

An FRSC official declined to give the casualty figure.

But TRACE Zonal Commander Tommy Hamza said 30 people died.

The Ogun State Police Command explained how the crash occurred.

Its spokemen, Muyiwa Adejobi, said the accident claimed many lives.

He said it was caused by a trailer from Ikorodu, which reportedly entered the expressway at a time a truck and an unmarked bullion van were coming from Lagos.

The truck and bullion van were said to be at close range and on top speed.

Adejobi said as the truck driver from Lagos attempted to avoid ramming into the one from Ikorodu, it swerved and crashed into people by the roadside.

He said the driver of one the trucks, Mr Adebayo Adedayo, has been arrested while the youths in the community, acting on the belief that the police caused the accident, attempted to mob some police officers from the Obalende Division, when they arrive on the scene.

The police spokesman said the police had no hand in the accident.

In Lagos, about 65 passengers last night escaped death when a LAGBUS commuter bus caught fire.

The bus, an Ashok Leyland, with registration number XZ 564 AKD, with code number W0 17, is under the management of Nationwide, one of the private operators of the BRT scheme.

The bus reportedly left Oshodi and was heading to Ikorodu when it caught fire at 7. 47pm as it came out of the Maryland tunnel.

The fire was said to have started from the engine.

It was reportedly discovered by the passengers in another vehicle. They called attention to the fire.